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Educational Maintenance Allowance:
If you are in further education you may be eligible for an educational maintenance allowance.
This is a weekly payment of up to £30 paid directly to you if you are in further education. You can also get a bonus payment of £100 if you stay in learning and complete your course. This can be up to as much as £500 over two years.
From April 2006 it is to be extended to cover trainees on Entry to Employment programmes (E2E) and programme led pathways or PLP’s.
Your family will also have access to Child benefit and Child tax credits. If you are in training that isn’t covered by the learning skills Council Work based learning programme you will not be eligible.
To be entitled to the EMA your household income needs to be £30,000 a year or less and you need to be 16 between the 1 st September and the 31 st August during the year you apply.
You can claim the EMA for up to two years but this can stretch to 3 years if you need more time to achieve your full potential.
So what’s the catch?
In order to claim your money you need to attend your course and do the work. Attendance is monitored weekly and will be considered for your bonus payments alongside your achievements on the course. These are monitored through meeting learning goals agreed by yourself and your tutor or teacher.
To apply you need to complete an application form, which includes a section for your parents/carers on family income. This is sent to the Assessment and Payment body.
Application forms are available from www.ema.dfes.gov.uk and from Connexions Centres and Schools.
You will need to do an application every year, this is assessed against your family income for the last complete tax year.
For more information contact the dfes website above or your local Connexions centre.